Twitter introduced targeted promoted tweets today, which means advertisers can send tailored messages based on where users live and what devices they're on.

"What if you want to make an offer just to New York Twitter users? Until today, it's been impractical to send these kinds of highly tailored Tweets, since there was no way to reach people in New York without also reaching followers in Norway, Nebraska and Nigeria who can't take advantage of your offer," Kevin Weil, a Twitter product manager, wrote in a blog post.

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This advertising tool is meant to appeal to global brands, enabling them to send messages at different times and for users in different countries.

Companies can also choose which platform to send to, so if mobile app providers only want to reach mobile users versus desktop users, they can. It's not clear if they will target users using any other data, but we have a message into Twitter and will update if we get more information.

Twitter has been testing feature for several weeks with advertisers like @British_Airways, @CocaCola, The Washington Post (@wpsocialreader), and @Wendys, but it goes live for all advertisers today.

Update, 5:17 p.m. PT:A Twitter spokesperson clarified that the new feature lets brands target tweets without having to send it to all of its followers first. This means if @Wendys had a discounted burger deal for its New York stores only, its tweet about the promotion wouldn't show up in its main feed, so a person from San Francisco wouldn't see it even if they followed the chain. Instead it would go out to just New Yorkers who follow the brand on Twitter and users similar to them.